" Ilium, New York,
is divided into three parts. In the northwest are the managers
and engineers and civil servants and a few professional
people; in the northeast are the machines; and in the south,
across the Iroquois River, is the area known locally as
Homestead, where almost all the people live. If the bridge
across the Iroquois were dynamited, few daily routines would
be disturbed. Not many people on either side have reasons
other than curiosity for crossing..."